Automatic call distribution (ACD) systems and the call centers that are built around them have traditionally been designed to distribute incoming or outgoing voice telephone calls of a business among a pool of agents for handling. However, recent technical and social advances require a reconsideration of how call centers are designed. They include the following:    More and more businesses want to blend the handling of incoming and outgoing calls, and to do so efficiently.    Maturing and widespread use of the Internet has increased the amount of electronic mail that businesses receive from customers, and these transactions need to be measured, tracked, and handled in ways similar to voice calls.    As access to the Internet has become common through Web browsers, businesses have found that Web pages are an important point of contact with customers and provide electronic commerce opportunities that need to be handled, measured, and tracked in ways similar to voice calls.    There is an industry-wide trend to move the formulation of call-center goals from efficiency alone to treating individual customers in ways that are uniquely suited to their individual needs and preferences while still using business resources in an efficient way.
Despite the need for call-center design reconsideration in light of these factors, the prior art that is known to the inventors consists of voice-only solutions or the adaptation of these voice-only solutions to force-fit other media into the same design. This results in the use of the voice-only solutions as an expedient but inadequate way of solving the broader problem. New media also require tracking of information that is nonexistent or not tracked in voice-only designs. Voice call centers must be either specially adapted to track this information, or must forego tracking of this information and do without it. Other adaptations require that all media be converted to a common format rather than supporting the hardware and/or software that is best suited for each medium.